Exploring Left-Wing Extremism on the Decentralized Web: An Analysis of Lemmygrad.ml

TL;DR

This paper analyzes left-wing extremism on Lemmygrad.ml, revealing increased activity and toxicity after subreddit bans, with content supporting authoritarianism, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and antisemitic views, highlighting extremism in decentralized networks.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of political extremism on Lemmygrad.ml, combining temporal activity, toxicity measures, and transformer-based topic modeling to understand content dynamics.

Findings

User activity increased after subreddit bans

Toxicity levels rose significantly post-migration

Content included support for authoritarian regimes and antisemitic views

Abstract

This study investigates the presence of left-wing extremism on the Lemmygrad.ml instance of the decentralized social media platform Lemmy, from its launch in 2019 up to a month after the bans of the subreddits r/GenZedong and r/GenZhou. We conduct a temporal analysis on Lemmygrad.ml's user activity, with also measuring the degree of highly abusive or hateful content. Furthermore, we explore the content of their posts using a transformer-based topic modeling approach. Our findings reveal a substantial increase in user activity and toxicity levels following the migration of these subreddits to Lemmygrad.ml. We also identify posts that support authoritarian regimes, endorse the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and feature anti-Zionist and antisemitic content. Overall, our findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of political extremism within decentralized social networks and emphasize the necessity of analyzing both ends of the political spectrum in research.